Hi All,
By the time I started my Udemy journey I had already been making video content for many years and was using video editing software which was affordable but also had plenty of functions (VideoStudio X6). When I started on Udemy I realised I needed something different. My sound quality from my camcorder wasn’t suitable, the camcorder only took proprietary microphones which required batteries for the lapel mic (and there wasn’t a compatible mic to place on the camcorder). The lapel mic batteries only lasted about 4 hours and I had times when the mic would cut out (it was bluetooth) or where the batteries would run out and I wouldn’t have noticed and would end up with a silent, unusable video.
So I realised I was going to have to capture the audio separately (I was using my Zoom H2 and then more recently my Zoom H2n. I now also have the Zoom H1 and Zoom H4n Pro, all of which serve different purposes) to the video and then synch it in video-editing software. I initially tried to do this manually by zooming in on a clap in the waveform of the video and audio and lining them up, but frequently they would be slightly out of synch and it was time-consuming if I have recorded 100 videos for an eCourse and I now have to synch 100 videos of audio, and then there was the added problem that when cropping the video I had to make sure I cropped the audio at the same time and didn’t accidentally just crop the video, or I would quickly have a video way out of synch, so I was saving each video as an unedited video with the external audio as a track, and then editing this video, but that took a long time to do.
So, for me, the biggest decision over choosing new video-editing software for making my Udemy courses was whether it could auto-synch the audio and video file together and have a single file created quickly which I could work with. I found that the most recent version of the software I was already using happened to have this feature included, so I upgraded to that software (I now use VideoStudio X9 Pro). It significantly sped up my production time.
I have recently found out that there are video-editing software programmes available which allow you to bulk process videos. Currently I have to edit a video, then wait ages while it processes before I can edit the next video. What would be ideal is to do all the editing during the day and bulk process all the videos over night, so I may be finding software which can do this and upgrading my software again as this is one of the most time-consuming parts of my editing stage.
How did you pick your video editing software? What is important to you in the video editing software you choose?
All the best
Dan
@DeniseFletcher: Hi @Hypnodan, I'm at the low tech end of editing so I just use Camtasia, Audacity, my iRig mic my iphone and powerpoint. I try to do as little editing as I can 😉
@GregReverdiau: Hi Dan,
Several factors I consider:
- ease of use: this really depends on how our brain works. There’s no right or wrong answer. Try the software and see what works.
- compatibility with your operating system: some software works better with windows and some better with Mac.
- price: free vs one time fee vs subscription model.
- functionalities: Does it do all you need to do
Based on all those, I am a Mac user and I tried both Premiere and Final Cut and went with Final Cut. It reportedly works faster on Mac than Premiere because it was designed for the hardware, it’s a one time fee vs a subscription and it was easier for me to use. It has functionalities like multi cam which I love for my editing. With that said, Premiere is an industry standard and an amazing software. Btw, both do batch exporting so you can export everything at the end of your editing day and let the computer do the work while you sleep!
@GrahamNicholls: I'm not what I would call technically advanced with editing software to be honest @Hypnodan
I edit everything on my Ipad and started out just using iMovie but after a few courses I wanted something with more functionality but was still easy to use. I came across LumaFusion which claimed to be the cloest thing on a tablet to that of PC software. After trying it out I found it very easy to use and it processes videos really quickly so I went with it and haven't looked back since.
Author:
@Hypnodan
